The Everyday Struggles of A Mathematician
by asotoasty
Summary: After the previous Ultimate Analyst died in an unfortunate hit and run, Hope's Peak realized that, for the success of the Kamakura Izuru project, it was necessary to bring in another with similar talent. Enter Yusuke Inari, the Ultimate Mathematician, and join me as we take a nice, long look at what could have been.
1. Chapter Prologue: Induction

**AUTHORS NOTE:  
Hello, I'm the author! That's why this is in the authors note. So, I'm gonna write a few things down to just kinda... lay down the law, I guess. Yes, Yusuke is going to be the main character throughout this story. That's why he's the first person I introduce. Yes, there may be other original-ish characters that I add because I'm a big adult boy who can do that if I want. Yes, Tsumiki is going to be Yusuke's pairing. This is probably not going to turn into a Harem situation, but I do love basically all the female characters in the series. This is, for the most part, going to be a happy little fic, because I'm not good at things being sad. Maybe there'll be some tonal shifts where things get serious, maybe a few sad moments, but this is the [Everday Struggles of a Mathematician], not murder porn. Also, I'm not really a great writer, and trying to write things smart makes me sound like an ass because I use big words to make up for my lacking imagination. I will be taking suggestions as to where the plot should go because honestly, I'm winging it like hell. **

**Oh, and despite all my excuses, don't be afraid of criticism! Even if you're not quite sure what I'm doing wrong, letting me know that something feels wrong is the only way that I can improve. I hate writing dialogue, so that's a big yikes.**

**Finally, if you ask reallllllly nicely, I might just add some extra fluffy Omake's in.**

**Lots of Love,  
ASOtoasty**

Yusuke was a smart lad. In fact, he was very smart- so smart, in fact, that he was well known for just for being so smart. Smarter than you or I, smarter than probably anyone you know, unless you know him, in which case he _is_ the smartest person you know. However, right now, he was completely out of his element, entirely out of his depth, and out of words to say to the crying girl in front of him.

Covered from head to toe in bandages, a young girl was crouched down on her knees, bawling her eyes out as several unconscious men littered the ground around her. Sighing for what felt like the hundredth time today, Yusuke walked forwards and held out his hand, doing his best to put on his customer service smile.

"Come on, then.", he breathed out, trying his darndest to bring some calm to the inconsolable mess of hair before him, "Let's get you to the infirmary, pronto."

Strangely, being addressed by a person who had just knocked several bigger, presumably stronger men didn't really help the poor girl much, as she retreated further from the still dumbfounded nerd, whimpering quietly. Yusuke shook his head at this point and tried to push all of his rising irritation out of his voice as he crouched his knees, now bringing his face eye level with the small ball of anxiety.

"A-aaa...", she began, as all colour began to drain from her already incredibly pale face "p-please... I...d-didn't do anything".

"Easy, lil' missie. I'm not gonna hurt you. It seemed like you were gonna get hurt so i stepped in. I'm not a bad guy, as far as I know. I'm Yusuke Inari, **Ultimate Mathematician.**" He spoke with a quite obviously forced calming tone, but this seemed to work slightly as, while the quivering remained, the girl seemed to find it within her to look into his eyes.

You may be wondering how a Mathematician was able to beat up several well-trained thugs. Well, Yusuke has a very rare gift indeed- the ability to calculate not only accurately, but exceedingly fast. Combined with a vast arsenal of knowledge at his disposal, and you'll find that he is very good at predicting what a certain type of opponent will do in any given situation. There is, however, one glaring weakness that he has. That weakness is-

-"HYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

That he cannot take into account data he does not know. Which is why, despite seeming nigh invulnerable to the thugs sprawled out on the ground, the sudden ambush from one **Ultimate Aikido Master **was more than enough to end with him being knocked out.


	2. Chapter 2: Bearings

"Nnnngh...". The boy groaned out in a mixture of tired-grumpiness and pain as his eyes creaked open ever so slowly. Though still hazy, especially without his glasses, he could just about make out the face of the young girl who had been the victim of his heroics leering over him with concern, tears brimming from her pale grey eyes.

"Oh." He said, deadpanning at the unexpected situation. "G'Mornin', I guess?" he said in a deadpan tone that still somehow carried across his feelings of amusement at the situation he found himself in. Startled at her patient's calm attitude towards the rather odd situation he found himself in, the nurse let out a pathetic sounding squeak. After a brief moment of silence, the girl took a deep breath to steel herself, and then began to speak in a barely audible whisper. "I-I'm Mikan Tsumu-Tsumiki." Though she had quickly rectified herself, the boy lying on the bed still quickly took notice of the brief stutter where she had almost got her own damn name wrong and had to try his best to repress a giggle.

Looking at the girl in front of him, he found himself completely impressed. She was certainly a special kind of beauty- not the traditional kind, mind you, as her dark purple hair was unevenly cut in several places, but this actually made her seem cuter in a strange way. On top of this, large portions of the visible skin on either arm were covered in bandages, presumably because of the altercation with the men whom he had attacked but her face showed her natural, genetic beauty as it was entirely free from injury. her figure... well, it was impressive, okay? Voluptuous, if we're going to keep this relatively 'calm'. Despite a pounding headache, knowing that this pretty little thing- Mikan, apparently- had watched over him during his unconsciousness made him feel like it was worth it in the end. SItting up, he smiled brightly at her and raised his hand in acknowledgment.

"I'm... the **Ultimate Nurse**... ehe... If it's okay w-with you, can I p-please remember your name, Yusuke?!". Though initially her words were meek and showed off her timidity, at some point she began speaking with an excited tone and a heavy blush as her eyes screwed up tight, presumably in fear of rejection.

"That is unnecessary," A new voice spoke, causing Mikan to nearly leap out of her skin. This voice, though harsh - borderline furious, in fact - had a distinctly feminine tone to it. "This... this.. this _degenerate male..."_ it spoke, "Is not worth your attention in the slightest!". Confusion rising, Yusuke turned towards the source of the scathing voice. There, he saw the face of his assailant, the one who landed him in what he assumed to be the school infirmary.

_Green tinted hair, strange pinwheel hair-thing, strange double layered skirt and dull green eyes...A very distinctive look, maybe cute, even, if it wasn't for the death glare and the fact she's already had me laid out once before_. As he sized her up, the girl raised her arms defensively, seemingly offended at his casual once over of her body.

"Stop gawking, filthy degenerate pig! Kuh- If it wasn't for the kindness of Mikan-Chan, I would've finished you off by now!". Obviously, this girl didn't think very highly of him, but from her speech patterns he could reason that she didn't think very highly of anyone who was a male, so the best course of action was to not give her any reason to hate him.

"Oh, hi there!", Yusuke's trademark amicable/confused voice rang out, this time with a slightly gentler smile, as though he was completely unfazed by her threats. "Nice t'meet ya, miss... sorry, didn't quite catch your name?"

Yusuke watched as her face transitioned rapidly between confusion at his calm, even friendly demeanor, anger at the fact that he was not acting in the way she believed he would, and maybe, just maybe, a hint of guilt mixed in there. Looking between Yusuke and the once again terrified Mikan, the girl breathed out a defeated sigh and said "Tenko is Tenko, the **Ultimate Aikido Master**! That is all you're going to pry from me, degenerate." Her frustrated look transitioned to a slightly more meek one as she started fiddling with her fingers and her voice went from low and threatening to slightly embarrassed. "U-um. Tenko is somewhat sorry about kicking you in the face. But only a little!"

However comical this 'Tenko''s actions were, Yusuke decided that laughing would be putting himself in unnecessary danger, so he simply nodded calmly. "It's okay, no harm done. Well, a lil' harm done, but like, we're cool. I think." Okay, so Yusuke was smart, but this is the kind of situation where no matter what you say everyone's gonna feel awkward, and he's never really been the wordy-type. Time to escape! Standing up while looking towards Mikan, he spoke in his usual placid monotone. "Well, Thanks for bringing me here, girlie. Doesn't seem like I'm a cripple just yet, so I'm gonna head to...class... uh-oh...". A frown formed on his face as he realized that he didn't actually know where he was supposed to be. Looking at the clock, he let out a gentle sigh of relief, finding that he had 20 minutes before classes began.

"Uh, before I ended up here, I was supposed'ta be going to class 77-B. Either of you know where that is...?". His voice now had just a smidge of desperation within it. Looking at the helpless boy, Mikan shakily raised her hand as she looked worriedly at him.

"U-um, I'm in 77-B... d-do you want to come with me...?" He looked at her, and took a breath to speak before she started talking again, "I-I'm sorry, of course you wouldn't, I'm sorry for assuming you'd want to go to class with a worthless girl like me... p-please don't hate me." Getting hit with a buttload of self-hatred took Yusuke by surprise, something that seems to be getting pretty common for someone who was supposedly good with analyzing their surroundings. Seeing Mikan on the verge of tears and about to start another self-deprecating speech, Yusuke piped up, his voice chipper.

"Thank's bunches, Mikan! Looks like we getta be classes for the foreseeable future. Again, I'm Yusuke Inari, but you can call me whatever really~." Mikan looked visibly relieved by his interruption and fidgeted around happily. "Well, we should probably head off now, since we only got 20 minutes. Bye bye, Tenko~". He said, holding the door open for Mikan who stuttered out a "Y-yesh!" before moving swiftly towards him. As the door slid closed, all that remained in the room was a deeply confused Aikido master.

"How... how come he gets to go with Mikan-chan" she murmured, her confusion slowly changing to righteous indignation at her perceived abandonment.


	3. Chapter 3: Contradiction

**Hey, just a quick AN here. Just wanted to let y'all know your choices, mkay? So, either:  
****1) ****Infrequent but big chapters  
****2) Widdle baby chapters that come out every day like a gay guy in a revolving closet.****  
****I'm honestly a pretty slow writer, but I imagine I'll get better as the story progresses. Hell, that's part of the reason I tried my hand anyways.  
****Lots of Love,  
****Author~**

As Yusuke shut the door behind him, Yusuke and Mikan began their journey to Class in awkward yet peaceful silence. Yusuke wasn't really quite sure how to approach the girl without giving her a heart attack, and Mikan just wasn't really sure how to talk to people in general. Finally deciding that enough was enough, Yusuke started imagining himself snowboarding in space until he could come up with a conversation topic.

That's it!, he thought, finally waking up from his brief daydream.

"So, Tsumiki-san, uh, what's your favorite kind of bandage?". No seriously, that's the best he could come up with. Even with a brain snowboard, that's all there was. No funny jokes, no deep conversa-

"Um... well, there are so many kinds... like waterproof bandages and adhesive bandages and gauze... b-but, I really like the non-elastic types. They're not too tight but firmly secure wounds!"

-and it seemed like somehow, it worked anyway. Christ alive.

"Huh. I mean, I always found gauze comfier. The non-elastic stuff works n'all, but it always feels like it's in danger of falling off." Of course, Yusuke wasn't actually all that opinionated when it came to bandages. But in order to be able to have a proper conversation with the timid Mikan, sometimes it was necessary to just play devil's advocate.

"But that's wrong! Th-the non-elastic bandages are held on by other things..." he heard, from his side. Mikan seemed to realize what she had said after the fact, and shrunk into herself, ready to apologize profusely. Before she could get a word out, however, Yusuke quickly cut her off.

"Huh, I guess that makes more sense than them just, what, flapping around? I was being pretty dumb. Thanks, Mikan~." He finished his statement with a strange, ear-to-ear, shit-eating grin that he typically gave to people in order to show that he was okay. That seemed to be effective enough in making the nurse stop panicking that he now suddenly would hate her, but it didn't quite remedy the whimpering. "Hey, Mikan," he began, trying oh so desperately to keep his voice gentle, "It's okay, yeah? That's how conversations go. One person says a thing and another person says a thing back. Even if they disagree, that don't mean a huge deal. Mkay?" Uh oh, he lapsed back into speaking like a country bumpkin there. At least it seemed semi-effective with Mikan.

The rest of the journey proved rather uneventful.


	4. Chapter 4: Exhaustion

Yusuke and Mikan paused for a second outside the classroom. Hesitance. Yusuke had been waiting for oh-so-long to be accepted into this course, but it still took him a while to work up the courage to go in and see his classmates who had been accepted the first time- people who were presumably more talented, more brilliant than him. Anxiety, expectation, apprehension and hope all bubbled up inside him until they finally reached a critical point, and thoughts stopped mattering. Reaching towards the door handle, he walked ins-

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

and quickly lurched forwards his arms to catch the woman-shaped projectile that had just been launched at his face. His knees still buckling from the impact, he quickly set down the girl before he was accused of perversions.

"Hm? Not bad! LET'S SEE HOW WELL YOU HANDLE THIIIIIIIIIIIS!". That was all the warning Yusuke had before the fist of the behemoth shot towards him. Yusuke redirected the force of the blow by pushing the man's forearm upwards, making the punch sail above his head and leaving a gaping hole where the part above the doorway had been. While Yusuke certainly had a decent amount of strength and endurance, if that had connected with him... well, his head probably wasn't tougher than brick.

Conscious of the bystanders around (and behind) him, Yusuke quickly jumped at the towering ogre's face, in an attempt to vault over him and get onto his back. It was semi-successful- while he was able to enter a clinch and even jump above him, the man proved that his insane strength was not his only ability. Yusuke suddenly found his foot grabbed as his body shot rapidly towards the ground. By covering the back of his head, most of the impact was mitigated, however.

That, of course, was not the end of the fight. With a kick which swung like a guillotine heading straight towards his torso, Yusuke barely had the time to roll out of the way as water sprang up from the ground.

This guy he was fighting just kicked the ground so goddamn hard that he not only shattered the floor, but also the reinforced lead pipes.

While that certainly made Yusuke want to stop, that seemed like a less viable option as the giant of a man sprinted towards him with an agility that seemed nearly impossible for his size. In that moment, Yusuke went into overdrive. Considering the size difference and the speed of the approach, the two most probable attacks would be either a clothesline or a straight right. In either case, against somebody built like this, it would be best to avoid and use the overextension of a missed attack to flank.

Making up his mind, Yusuke stood stock still for a moment before he also took off running. As the colossus drew back his arm, Yusuke dropped to the ground, his legs still in front of him, and slid underneath his legs before rapidly turning and grabbing on to his shirt. Exerting his full strength, he was able to clamber onto the titan's back, placing the beast in a firm, powerful stranglehold.

For a brief moment, everyone in the room who had been a passive observer to the battle stood, mouths agape. To them, Yusuke was just a poor sod who'd been sentenced to death almost as soon as he came into the room, and now here he was, holding his own against someone that even the Ultimate Gymnast, Akane Owari struggled to fight against. No- he wasn't holding his own, he seemed to be winning. This lanky, scruffy, nerdy-looking, glasses-wearing beanpole had just got an advantage over goddamn Nekomaru.

What the shit.

It wasn't like Yusuke or Nekomaru were aware of this, however. They were in a trance- with Yusuke struggling to maintain his stranglehold as Nekomaru flailed around and slammed into the walls, not only causing harm to Yusuke but also completely devastating their classroom. As Nekomaru began to run out of breath, Yusuke's stranglehold intensified, until finally Nekomaru was forced to his knees, woozy from oxygen deprivation.

When Nekmoaru tapped the ground twice, Yusuke came back to his senses and released the mountain-like man from his grasp. They both began to take labored breaths as the exhaustion hit them. Yusuke might not have been choked, but he had to tense up every three seconds to stop himself from being winded from where he was slammed into the walls.

What seemed like an eternity (about 30 seconds) passed before the spectators were broken from their stupor. Before any of them could speak, however, a calm, female voice came from the front of the classroom.

"Ahem. Nekomaru-Kun, dear, would you mind explaining why upon meeting your new classmate you attacked him and nonchalantly destroyed my classroom." Looking over at the source of the voice, Yusuke saw a tall, beautiful lady, wearing a sky-blue skirt suit with a white, frilly apron above it. Looking at her twitching smile, both he and Nekomaru realized just how much shit they were in.

"Now, Nekomaru,", she began, " I know that it's your job to train with athletes... but next time, don't just jump a person- and don't fight here. While we may be well funded, we can't just go around destroying buildings willy-nilly, now can we?". Yusuke watched in mild amusement (and profound dread) as "Nekomaru"'s face blanched in abject terror. Nekomaru started rapidly shaking his head, and turned towards Yusuke and opened his maw.

"I AM NEKOMARU NIDAI! AND! I! AM! SORRY!", he proclaimed, as though daring anyone to say something the to the contrary. Of course, nobody did, and while Yusuke waited for the ringing in his ears to subside, the woman at the front, who he assumed to be his teacher apparently known as Yukizome, nodded happily, while the anger he had seen vanished without a trace. Yusuke gave him a cheeky grin while slicking his hair back, and was about to introduce himself when Yukizome spoke up once more.

"Okay then, now that that's out of the way, come up and introduce yourself, new-boy-kun~.", she spoke cheerfully, as though blissfully unaware of the wasteland of a classroom around her. Of course, what with Yusuke being a nerd and all, he walked to the front of the class and began to speak.

"Hey there. I'm Yusuke Inari, Ultimate Mathematician." He paused there for a second, immensely enjoying the surprised reactions of his classmates at the reveal of his talent before scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Uh, sorry about the classroom n'all. I uh... didn't mean to?". Yusuke's blush at saying this reached his ears, much to the amusement of all present. "Uh, I feel kinda dumb for saying this, but aren't there supposed to be... more of you? It don't take me to figure out that there are like, 3 times more chairs than people."


End file.
